Crypto Phishing Losses Plunge 83% in 2025—But Wallet Threats Are Still Lurking

Phishing attacks just got a whole lot less profitable for scammers. The crypto world slashed phishing-related losses by a staggering 83% last year, marking a major win for security protocols and user education.

The New Front Line: Your Digital Wallet

Don't celebrate just yet. While phishing emails are getting filtered out, the battlefield has shifted. Sophisticated wallet drainers and signature exploits are now the tools of choice, bypassing traditional security by targeting the very software meant to keep assets safe. It's a classic case of the arms race moving one step forward.

Adapt or Get Drained

The industry's response has been swift—but so has the threat's evolution. Security firms are deploying advanced behavioral analytics and real-time threat intelligence, while wallet providers are pushing for more transparent transaction simulations. The message is clear: complacency is the new vulnerability.

So, the headline number looks great—an 83% plunge sounds like a victory lap. Yet, the persistent wallet threats prove that in crypto, the only thing harder than making a fortune is keeping it safe from those who didn't. A cynic might say it's the perfect financial ecosystem: creating endless solutions for the problems it generates.

In brief

• Cryptocurrency phishing losses fell sharply to $83.85 million in 2025, representing an 83% decline from the previous year.
• Phishing activity closely tracked market trends, with higher losses during periods of strong trading and Ethereum rallies.
• The largest single attack reached $6.5 million in September using Permit signatures.

Wallet Drainers Remain a Persistent Threat

Scam Sniffer’s latest report on wallet drainer activity across EVM-compatible chains highlights that phishing scams continue to track market trends. Periods of high trading volume and strong asset rallies tend to increase user participation, creating more opportunities for attackers. For instance, the third quarter of 2025 coincided with Ethereum’s strongest price rally and the highest quarterly phishing losses, totaling $31 million.

Monthly losses showed significant variation, ranging from $2.04 million in December, the slowest month of the year, to $12.17 million in August, when phishing activity reached its highest level. August and September combined accounted for 29% of the year’s total losses, impacting 30,743 users. The largest single attack of the year occurred in September, with $6.5 million stolen via a permit signature, a sharp decline from 2024’s $55.48 million heist. Permit and Permit2 approvals continued to be the most effective methods for attackers, responsible for 38% of major losses.

 Phishing Trends and New Attack Techniques

Beyond these familiar methods, 2025 saw the rise of a new type of attack through EIP-7702, shortly following the Pectra network upgrade, which allowed attackers to execute several malicious operations within a single transaction signature. The largest incidents with this method occurred in August, causing $2.54 million in losses across just two cases.

Other major trends in 2025, as outlined by Scam Sniffer, show how phishing activity continued to change :

• Large-scale phishing attacks occurred less often than in 2024, reflecting a general decline in severe incidents.
• Within this reduced activity, only 11 events in 2025 resulted in losses above $1 million, compared with 30 the previous year.
• The average loss per victim fell to $790 in 2025 from $1,488 in 2024.

Blockchain Security Challenges Extend Beyond Phishing

Blockchain security remained a complex issue in 2025, with various threats impacting multiple sectors. SlowMist’s 2025 Blockchain Security & AML Annual Report recorded 200 security incidents resulting in $2.935 billion in losses, compared with 410 incidents and $2.013 billion in 2024.

Key insights from SlowMist reveal how losses were spread across ecosystems and project types:

• Ethereum suffered the highest losses among blockchain ecosystems at $183.25 million, followed by Solana with $17.45 million and Arbitrum with $17.10 million.
• Looking at project types, decentralized finance saw 126 incidents resulting in $649 million in losses, while centralized exchanges experienced 22 incidents totaling $1.809 billion.
• Among these, a single loss at Bybit accounted for $1.46 billion, showing the scale of financial exposure faced by major platforms.

Meanwhile, PeckShield reported that losses from cryptocurrency hacks and security breaches dropped to $76 million in December 2025, representing a 60% decline compared with November’s $194.27 million. Despite the overall decline, 26 major security incidents still occurred during the month. The most severe case involved a $50 million loss from an address poisoning scam, while another incident affecting a multi-signature wallet resulted in $27.3 million stolen.

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